[Sundance Interview] Andrew Semans for RESURRECTION

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Wyatt Garfield.

In RESURRECTION, Margaret’s (Rebecca Hall) life is in order. She is capable, disciplined, and successful. Soon, her teenage daughter, who Margaret raised by herself, will be going off to a fine university, just as Margaret had intended. Everything is under control. That is, until David (Tim Roth) returns, carrying with him the horrors of Margaret’s past.

After the World Premiere of his sophomore feature, RESURRECTION, Nightmarish Conjurings’ Sarah Musnicky spoke with writer/director Andrew Semans, where they discussed how fear of parenting sparked the story behind the film, working with Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth, and what he would audiences to take away from the film.

To start things off, what inspired the idea behind the film?

Andrew Semans: Sometimes when I’m trying to come up with an idea for a story, or a character or a script, I find it productive to think about what scares me…lingering, or fundamental fears that I might have. And I’ll think on those in the hopes that something will emerge. And, in this case, I was thinking about fears around parenting, specifically, the fears of not being able to keep your child safe, fear that your child will be harmed or injured or victimized in some way, and fear that you will fail as a parent, in your fundamental duty as a parent to keep your child safe. That was a theme or fear that resonated deeply with me, and it got me to thinking about the parental vigilante sub-genre of movies, which of course, trades on these fears. It’s all about these fears, and also all about this fantasy of becoming a sort of indestructible superhero if your child is endangered.

So, I came up with a character and it was all rather vague, and I was trying to put it together, and around the same time, a friend of mine became involved in a very unhealthy relationship with a very toxic, manipulative, and controlling person. I was seeing how that was playing out firsthand, and doing my best to understand that situation, and doing my best to help in any way I could. I became fascinated by and very frightened by the techniques that these sorts of people use to manipulate and control and form incredible emotional bonds with their victims. And so, as I tried to understand that psychology, it came to inform the story in a significant way. Eventually, it became what it became.

I was gonna ask about, what research you had done regarding that dynamic, because there were certain moments where I was like, this is really uncomfortable. You nailed it.

Andrew Semans: Oh, thank you. Yeah. It was important to me to try and, even though the story of the movie is pretty outlandish, and goes in some crazy places, it was very important to me to try and make it psychologically realistic. To to be as truthful as possible when it came to the experience of this character and her history and her past trauma. And make sure that was consistent throughout the story and inform the story from beginning to end. So I’m glad that it felt truthful to you.

In terms of bringing on Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth, how did that come about?

Andrew Semans: It was very straightforward. Rebecca was on the project for a while as we were trying to get it together and raise the money. So, she was on board long before Tim was and we were able to get the script to Rebecca’s agent, who gave it to Rebecca. She read it and she responded immediately. The material resonated with her and excited her and we got together and I had a drink with her. But she was just immediately onboard and committed really from moment one based on the script, which was, of course, absolutely, enormously exciting for me because I was a huge, huge fan. I couldn’t imagine an actor better suited to the role, and I was absolutely right. She’s perfect for this part.

And so, she came on board, and she stuck with it as we tried to pull the project together, and thank God she did. Eventually, we were able to get it made. Tim came on much later in the process. But it was a similar circumstance where we just got the script to him. And he said yes. We didn’t require a tremendous amount of persuasion or anything. It was extremely straightforward. And, again, thank goodness that he responded to the material.

So, when it came time to shooting, what challenges did you have to deal with? With COVID and what not?

Andrew Semans: So. we shot the movie last August in 2021. So, it was in the thick of it. We had to deal with all the same COVID challenges and COVID protocols that probably every film in the festival this year had to deal with, which of course it complicates matters, and it’s frustrating and a pain, but it had to be done. We were very proud that there were no positive cases in our cast and crew at all. And so, that was a challenge, but certainly not a unique challenge these days.

The other challenges that we faced in this production were the same kind of challenges any indie feature faces, which is just making sure you have enough resources, and most importantly, making sure you have enough time. You know, it always comes down to time and anything I’ve ever worked on, it always comes down to making the best of the time you have and trying to maximize that time. Because movies are often made in a mad rush and that can be very anxiety-inducing.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from interviewing the past two years, it’s how quickly movies get made nowadays.

Andrew Semans: [laughs] It can be quite harrowing. You have to be ready to go. Because there’s often not a lot of time for trial and error.

I like to ask this of people who are doing their sophomore feature in particular. What did you learn from your first feature Nancy, Please that you brought into this particular project?

Andrew Semans: Oh, gosh. I’m really going to fail this one. I don’t know why that’s a hard question. But I like to think I learned things, important things, about directing on Nancy, Please.

If it makes it easier, it doesn’t have to be limited to directing. Broaden the scope. It could be scheduling, logistics, time management…everyone takes away something different.

Andrew Semans: I’m not entirely sure if I’ve internalized this, but what I tried to learn is that you need to… you have the film that’s in your head, and there’s the film that can be made, given the circumstances of the production, given where you are, who you’re with, how much time you have, how much money you have, and you have to be able to adapt. You have to be able to take that platonic ideal version of the movie and very quickly let that evolve, to adhere to the circumstances you’re in and conform to those circumstances and be creative within that. The more you become fixated on this original idea and try and force a square peg into a round hole, the more you’re doomed to failure. You have to adapt given what’s in front of you and sometimes what’s in front of you corresponds perfectly to what you wanted. In the case of say, Rebecca Hall, that was the case. I mean, she is the perfect Margaret. But in other cases, you’re gonna have to improvise and you have to be ready to do that. And that’s a hard lesson to learn. Certainly for me, and I’m trying to learn it.

See? No failure here. It’s always interesting to ask that question because everyone always learns something different.

Andrew Semans: Yeah, they always say don’t fall in love with the movie that’s playing behind your eyelids, you know? But I certainly in the past have had a problem falling in love with that movie in my head.

What was the most challenging scene from this film to shoot? Because there’s so much emotion, especially as we transition into the second half of the film. So I’m just curious, which was challenging?

Andrew Semans: You know, what was amazing is that on a performance level, emotional level, there were tremendous challenges because of how resilient and how experienced and how focused and prepared our cast was. So, the things that were really intimidating to me in terms of just the high drama, turned out to be remarkably straightforward and easy, thanks to the cast. The things that proved to be the most difficult were the things that were technically the most difficult. The things that required stunts, or SFX work, makeup, I didn’t have a lot of experience with that kind of thing going into this. So it was a real learning curve for me. And realizing how long that takes, and the kind of thought and preparation that goes into making a scene with action or violence or effects. Those were the things that really, for me, were intimidating and challenging. Not that we were doing anything in this movie that is particularly unique. Everything we do here in terms of stunts, action, and violence is pretty par for the course. But you know, that stuff is hard to do. When you see a movie that does it successfully that’s a real art. That’s what I learned.

FX stuff is, especially like prosthetics and stuff, so many people don’t realize how long that takes.

Andrew Semans: Yeah. We had a very, very good prosthetics team on this movie, who did some great work and did it especially great.

To wrap things up, what in particular do you want people to take away from this film?

Andrew Semans: I think It’s not a message movie. So there isn’t one specific takeaway. There isn’t something that I really want people to be focused on or ruminating on as they leave the theater or stop watching wherever they happen to be watching. I hope people see it as a fresh and thought-provoking and critical take on a familiar genre. I hope it’s something that is intellectually stimulating, as well as dramatically engaging and exciting. I hope it provokes conversation. I hope people find it worthy of consideration and rumination and talking over with their friends. I was gonna say I hope people take away that the lead performance is a great one, but I know they will.

I mean, Rebecca Hall has been trending on Twitter since the premiere. So, I think they know. [laughs]

Andrew Semans: She is a force of nature. She is just, she’s just incredible. So yeah, that’s it. I hope that’s not too vague.

It is perfect.

RESURRECTION had its World Premiere on January 22, 2022, at Sundance.

Author
Recent Posts

Follow Me

Sarah Musnicky

Editor-in-Chief/Co-Owner at Nightmarish Conjurings

Sarah is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Owner of Nightmarish Conjurings. Most may know her due to her desire to literally hug anything that could kill her, but also making sure that everyone is squared away and sanity is intact.

Follow Me

Latest posts by Sarah Musnicky (see all)